Religion

The dominant religion in the Ukraine is Eastern Orthodox Catholic. As a Roman Catholic, I was curious about Orthodox traditions and how they would relate to other practices of Christianity - particularly the Roman Catholic Church. The following website was useful for discerning some similarities and difference between the two:

http://www.fatheralexander.org/booklets/english/catechism_ext.htm

Some points that stuck out to me are:

Both Roman and Orthodox believe in sacred writings and tradition - that, along, with scripture, there are leaders governing the church in order to teach what could not be written and to keep the church community consistent with its teachings. This website stated that Christian Orthodox believe the Pope is the "first among equals," like an learning bishop, and the Roman Catholics believe the pope is infallible. It would be wise to speak with a church leader about this but I believe that, due to his human nature, the Pope could be wrong sometimes. I think this traditional view of the Pope is adjusting as Roman Catholics begin focusing more on the community. Maybe the "infallible" part comes in through the Pope genuinely taking much input (from people, from God, etc) to come to his decisions, or their humility to recognize their biases and weaknesses.

The Orthodox Catholics have icons whereas Roman Catholics have statues. (People pray to icons vs. use statues as reminders and decorations.)

According to the Eastern Orthodox view, there is no purgatory or Stations of the Cross.

Married men can become priests in the Orthodox tradition, not Roman Catholic. Baptism happens via full submersion in the Orthodox Church.

What I gathered is that many or the teachings are similar but the mass and other celebrations are very different. From my perspective, the Orthodox vies do not seem fundamentally different from Roman Catholic ones and so I do not think I will have too much trouble understanding the mentality of Ukrainian people. I think the thing I will have the most trouble adjusting to is the more somber, formal church gatherings (which are different from the joyous Roman Catholic and Protestant ones I have experienced). I plan to attend Christian Orthodox mass in Waterloo before I leave so that I can know a little bit of what to expect and further compare/contrast.

Mass throughout the year is very different than at Easter. Watch this video for a taste of an Orthodox Easter in Russia:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=005C6nbYxyY&feature=fvwrel